Snowmobiling has become an increasing-popular winter sport throughout the United States and abroad. Modern snowmobiles are driven by so-called "endless" tracks or belts, which are essentially conveyor belts integral with the snowmobile that engage the snow or ice surface below so as to propel the vehicle in a manner that is well known in the art. In this disclosure, the terms "track" and "belt" may be used interchangeably to refer to that component of the snowmobile which is used as this key propulsion element engaging the supporting snow surface. While this disclosure will refer throughout to a "snowmobile," it is understood that this disclosure applies generally to the repair not only of snowmobile belts/tracks, but to the repair of the belts/tracks used to propel any similar track-driven vehicle.
Snowmobile tracks frequently become damaged due to their heavy-duty abuse in harsh conditions and their contact with stones, branches, pavement, and other ground objects and surfaces during their use. This damage often appears in the form of holes in the track, breakage of "studs" that comprise part of the track as well as tearing of the rubber sections into which the studs are embedded, sections of the track wearing thin, etc. At present, there does not appear to be any system, apparatus or method used to repair these tracks at all. Rather, the snowmobile user must simply purchase a brand new track to replace the old track once a certain level of wear has occurred. Not only is this expensive for the user, but it is environmentally wasteful since the used track must then be disposed of, consuming valuable landfill or similar natural resource space. It would be preferable if a worn or damaged track could simply be repaired and then remain in continued use.
Hot vulcanization was first discovered by Goodyear in 1839. This process involves subjecting a rubberized compound to elevated temperature and pressure for a predetermined period of time in order to either form a molded rubberized product in the first instance, or to effectuate repair to a section of a preexisting rubberized product.
There are many known applications of hot vulcanization today. Some of the many U.S. patents that disclose various devices and methods of hot vulcanization in connection with vehicle tires or propulsion tracks include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,234,369; 4,279,449; 4,284,451; 4,303,380; 4,347,096; 4,756,678; 4,917,741; 4,931,004; 4,978,403; 5,058,963; 5,133,653; 5,247,981; 5,296,173; 5,312,203; 5,492,464; and 5,536,464.
Despite the proliferation of prior art in this area, there does not appear to be any prior art that in any way discloses or suggests repairing worn sections of a snowmobile track using vulcanization or, indeed, any other method (e.g., cold vulcanization, chemical compound repair, patching, transplanting), rather than simply disposing of these worn tracks. Additionally, there does not appear to be any prior art that discloses or suggests any particular methods or tools that can be used to effectuate the repair of a snowmobile tracks using hot vulcanization or similar methods. Finally, there does not appear to be any prior art disclosing or suggesting how to repair raised sections of a snowmobile track such as drive or traction "lugs."